ILC 268 
.N28 
I Copy 2 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN, 1917, No. 5! 



MORAL VALUES 
IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 



A REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON 
THE REORGANIZATION OF SECOND- 
ARY EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 



Ptepeired by 

HENRY NEUMANN 

ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOL. NEW YORK CnT 




WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFHCE 
1918 



BULLETIN OF THE BXTREAU OF EDTTCATION. 

Note.— With the exceptions indicated, the documents named below will be sent free 
of charge upon a,pplication to the Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. Those 
marked with an asterisls (*) are no longer available for free distribution, but may be 
had of the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing OflBce, Washington, D. C, 
upon payment of the price stated. Remittances should be made in coin, currency, or 
money order. Stamps are not accepted.; 

A complete list of available publications will be sent upon appUcatloQ. 

1917. 

*No. 1. Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1917. 

5 ets. 
'■NOi 2. Reorganization of Engligli in secondary schools. A report of the Com- 
mission on Secondary Education. James F. Hoslc, 20 cts. 
*No. 3. Pine-needle basketry in schools. William O. A. Hammel. Sets. 
No. 4. Secondary agricultural schools in Russia. W. S. Jesien. 
*No. 5. Report of an inquiry into the administration and support of the Colo- 
rado school system. Katherine M. Cook and A. C. IMonahan. 10 cts. 
No. 6. Educative anxi economic possibilities of school-directed home gardening 

in Richmond, Ind. J. L. Randall. 
No. 7. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1917. 
No. 8. Current practice in city school administration. W. S. DefEenbaugh. 
No. 9. Department-store education. Helen R. Norton, 
No. 10. Development of arithmetic as a school subject. W. S, Monroe. 
*No. 11. Higher technical education in foreign countries. A. T. Smith and 

W. S. Jesien, 20 cts. 
No. 12. Monthly record of current edticational publications, March, 1917. 
No. 13. Monthly record Of current educational publications, Aprils 1917. 
*No. 14. A graphic survey of book publication, 1890-1916. F. E. Woodward. 

; 5 cts. 
No. 15. Studies in higher education in Ireland and Wales. Geo. E. MacLeaii. 
No. 16. Studies in higher education in England and Scotland. Geo. E. Mac- 
Lean. 
No. 17. Accredited higher institutions. S. P. Capen. 

*No. 18. History of public-school education in Delaware. S. B. Weeks. 20 cts. 
No. 19. Report of a survey, of the University of Nevada. 
No, 20. Activities of school children in out-of -school hours. 0. D. Jarvis. 
No. 21. Monthly^ record of current educational publications, May, 1917. 
No. 22. Monej value of education. A. C. Ellis. 

*No.23. Three short courses in home making. Carrie A. Lyford. 15 cts. 
No. 24. Monthly record of current educational publications — Index, February, 

1916-January, 1917. 
No. 25. Military training of youths of school age in foreign countries, 

W. S. Jesien. 
No. 26. Garden clubs in the schools of Englewood, N. J. Charles G. Smith. 
No. 27. Training of teachers of mathematics for secondary schools. R. 0. 

Archibald. 
No. 28. Monthly record of cwrrent educational publications, June, 1917. 
No. 29. Practice teaching fox- secondary school-teachers. A. R. Mead. 
No. 30. School extension statistics, 1915r-16. Clarence A. Perry. 
No. 31. Raral-teacher preparation in county training schools and high schools. 

H. W. Foght. 
No. 32. Work of ttfe Bureau of Education for the native* of Alaska, 1&15-16. 
(Continued on page 3 of cover.] 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 



BULLETIN. 1917, No. 51 



MORAL VALUES 
IN SECONDARY EDUCATION 



A REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON 
THE REORGANIZATION OF SECOND- 
ARY EDUCATION. APPOINTED BY THE 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 



Prepared by 

HENRY NEUMANN 

ETHICAL CULTURE SCHOOL. NEW YORK CriY 




V/ASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1918 






ADDITIONAL COPIES 

' fEIS PUBUCAHON MAT BE PEOCUBED 
tEX S^EBINTENDEN? 07 SOCTTMEKIS 

aovEsmiEirr PBiNnNQ office 

WASHmOTON, D .C. 

AS 

( CENTS FEB COPY 



D. of D. 
MAY 20 t918 



^ 



t ■ ■ _ - 
CONTENTS. 

;. . - . ^ 

■, Pago. 

Preface , , 5 

Membership of the reviewing (Mmmittee of the commission 6 

I . Supreme importance of moral aims in American education 7 

II. The problem of distinct com'ses in moral instruction 8 

III. Moral values in pupil activities. ..Z 10 

IV. The importance of interpreting experience and suggesting new ideals 18 

V. Ethical values in various studies 20 

1. Social studies 20 

2. Literature 24 

3. Foreign languages 26 

4. English composition 26 

5. Household arts 27 

6. Natm'al sciences 28 

7. Mathematics 29 

8. Art 30 

9. Vocational guidance and vocational education. 31 

10. Physical education 33 

VI. The teaching staff 35 

3 



PREFACE. 



At a meeting of the Reviewing Committee of tlie Commission on 
the Reorganization of Secondary Education held in Chicago in No- 
vember, 1915, Dr. Henry Neumann, a member of the committee and 
a teacher in the Ethical Culture School, New York City, was re^ 
quested to prepare a statement on Moral Values in Secondary Edu- 
cation. The statement prepared by Dr. Neumann was discussed at 
the meeting of the committee the following July. After revision it 
was submitted to all the members of the committee and has been 
approved by them. This approval does not commit every member 
individually to every statement and every implied educational doc- 
trine, but does mean essential agreement as a committee with the 
general recommendations. 

The purpose of this bulletin is to stimulate the thought of teachers 
in discovering their innumerable opportunities for quickening the 
conscience and clarifying the moral vision of their pupils. The 
attention of teachers is here directed also to the other reports of the 
commission, in which are elaborated many of the ideas presented in 
this report. No series of reports, however, could compass the rich 
opportunities of the secondary school for developing the ethical life 
of young people. 

Clarence D. Kingsley, 
Chaifman of the Commission. 

5 



THE REVIEWING COMMITTEE. 

(The Reviewing Committee consists of 26 members, of whom 10 are chairmen of com- 
mittees and 10 are members at large.) 

Chairman of the Commission and of the Reviewing Committee: 

Clarence D. Kingsley, State High School Inspector, Boston, Mass. 
Members at large: 

Hon. P. P, Claxton, United States Commissioner of EJducation, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Thomas H. Briggs, Associate Professor of Education, Teachers* College, 
Columbia University, New York City. 

Alexander Inglis, Assistant Professor of Education, in charge of Secondary 
Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 

Henry Neumann, Ethical Culture School, New York City. 

William Orr, Senior Educational Secretary, International Y. M. C A. Com- 
mittee, 104 East Twenty-eighth Street, New York City. 

William B. Owen, Principal, Chicago Normal College, Chicago, 111. 

Edward O. Sisson, President, University of Montana, Missoula, Mont 

Joseph S. Stewart, Professor of Secondary Education, University of Gebr^ 
gia, Athens, Ga., and State High School Inspector. 

Milo H. Stuart, Principal, Technical High School, Indianapolis, Ind. 

H. L. Terry, State High School Inspector, Madison, Wis. 
Chairmen of eommittees: 

Administration of High Schools- — Charles Hughes Johnston,'^ Professor of 
Secondary Education, University of Illinois, Urbana, HI, 

Agriculture — A. V. Storm, Professor of Agricultural Education, University 
of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. 

Ancient Languages — Walter Eugene Foster, Stuyvesant High School, New 
York City. 

Art Education — Henry Turner Bailey, Dean, Cleveland School of Art, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Articulation of High School and College — Clarence D. Kingsley, State High 
School Inspector, Boston, Mass. 

Business Education — Cheesman A, Herrick, President, Girard College, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

English — James Fleming Hosic, Chicago Normal College, Chicago, 111. 

Household Arts — Amy Louise Daniels, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 
Wis. 

Industrial Arts — Wilson H. Henderson, Extension Division, University of 
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Mathematics — William Heard Kilpatrick, Associate Professor of Educa- 
tion, Teachers' College, Columbia University, New York City. 

Modern Languages — Edward Manley, Englewood High School, Chicago, 111. 

Music — Will Eai'hart, Director of Music, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Physical Education — James H. McCurdy, Director of Normal Courses of 
Physical Education, International Y. M. C. A. College, Springfield, Mass. 

Sciences — Otis W. Caldwell, Director, Lincoln School, and Professor of 
Education, Teachers' College, New York City. 

Social Studies — Thomas Jesse Jones, United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. 

Vocational Guidance — Frank M. Leavitt, Associate Superintendent of 
Schools, Pittsburgh, Pa. 

» Deceased Sept 4, 1917. 



MORAL YALDES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 



I. SUPREME IMPORTANCE OP THE MORAL AIMS IN AMERICAN 

EDUCATION. 

To consider moral values in education is to fix attention upon 
what should be the paramount aim. A schooling that imparts knowl- 
edge or develops skill or cultivates tastes or intellectual aptitudes, 
fails of its supreme object if it leaves its beneficiaries no better 
morally. In all their relationships present and future, that is, as 
schoolmates, as friends, as members of a family, as workers in their 
special vocations, as Americans, as world citizens, the greatest need 
of our boys and girls is character, the habitual disposition to choose 
those modes of behavior that most do honor to human dignity. Not 
simply to learn to tell the truth or to respect property rights, but 
to realize in ever more vital ways that the worth of life consists in 
the endeavor to live out in every sphere of conduct the noblest of 
which one is capable — ^this it is which gives education its highest 
meaning.* 

Stated in terms of national service, the aim of the secondary 
school should be to equip our pupils as fully as possible with the 
habits, insights, and ideals that will enable them to make America 
more true to its best traditions and its best hopes. To strengthen 
what is most admirable in the American character and to add to it 
should be the goal toward which all the activities are pointed. 
Hence the best contribution that any school can offer is to enrich 
the understanding of what is required for right living together in 
a democracy, to encourage every disposition toward worthy initiative 
and cooperation, and to provide all opportunity for the practice 
through which these habits and attitudes are most surely ingrained. 
By a fortunate circumstance, leading features in our national life, 
such as our ideals of libei-ty and equality, and such traits as a distinct 
strain of chivalry, link themselves naturally with tendencies espe- 
cially active in young people dui*ing their years in the secondary 

1 Moral behavior, aa here understood, Is that which calls out in all concerned, in the 
agent himself as well as In the recipient and in all who are in any way involved,, the best 
of which each is uniquely capable. Friendship, for example, is morally valuable to the 
extent that each of the friends stimulates the distinctive excellence of the other and 
thereby of himself ; and since each can be his best only as he acts out his various rela- 
tionships aright, in the home, the vocation, etc., where the same rule of reciprocal stimu- 
lation applies, it follows that the Influence of friend upon friend thus reaches out into 
increasingly broader circles. For this conception an«l for much else here Included th« 
writer is indebted to Prof. Felix Adler, 

7 



8 MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

school. This is peculiarly the time when they crave freedom, self- 
reliance, the chance to show what they can do by themselves; it is 
the time when they are notably conscious of a new personal worth, 
a quickened sense of justice, and a broadened desire to help their 
fellow beings. By seizing every occasion therefore to give these 
promptings their best nurture, the school accomplishes two purposes 
that coincide: It makes for a better America by helping its pupils 
to make themselves better persons. 

How can this be achieved ? It would be a mistake for the high 
school to place its main reliance upon any single method, as if char- 
acter could be developed chiefly by imparting moral wisdom or 
even by instilling special habits or holding up lofty ideals. Intelli- 
gence, habits, ideals, all three, are required. Without habits, ideals 
degenerate into sentimentalism ; without moral understanding and 
ideals, habit becomes dead routine incapable of growth mto new 
and better ambitions. Any one of these without the other two 
would leave important aspects lacking. 

II. THE PROBLEM OF DISTINCT COURSES IN MORAL INSTRUCTION. 

To meet this threefold requirement, is it desirable that in every 
high school at the present time the other activities should be supple- 
mented by distinct courses in moral instruction ? Teachers properly 
trained to conduct such courses are very few. Let us, therefore, con- 
sider the advantages of this method, the disadvantages, and the re- 
quirements for adopting it successfully. 

In the hands of enthusiastic, well-trained teachers, courses of this 
kind may do much to expand and deepen the moral insight of young 
people, to promote a habit of mora,l thoughtfulness, and to elevate 
their purposes. By providing place for this subject the school em- 
phasizes the fact that it considers moral thinking sufficiently im- 
portant to receive specific attention. Furthermore, by the allotment 
of a definite time the subject is insured against the neglect likely to 
attend a merely incidental treatment. There is also allowed a more 
complete consideration of duties than is possible when moral prob- 
lems are discussed only as some special incident, such as a breach 
of discipline, a new school ordinance, or a celebration, brings the 
opportunity. For instance, many of the finer duties of home life 
would never be considered if the teacher were obliged to wait until 
some special occasion arises. 

Moreover, a distinct course offers greater chance than incidental 
instruction to develop the broad, far-reaching principles that growth 
in character requires. Particularly is this true in a democracy 
pledged to progress. If conduct is to be other than conventional 
morality, or slavish obedience to whatever happens to be the prevail- 



MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 9 

ing code, surely there must be careful thinking upon underljdng 
principles. Quiet, earnest reflection upon these principles at regu- 
lar times under the guidance of the right kind of teacher is therefore 
a need of which the j^oung people themselves may not be particularly 
conscious, but which, in these days of extremely hurried living, is 
important enough to deserve every encouragement.^ 

Before such courses are offered, however, it is essential to remem- 
ber the following facts. When moral instruction is treated as a dis- 
tinct subject, there is danger that the other moral opportunities of 
the school will be overlooked or slighted. It is easy to shift to the 
special teacher the burden of concern for character and to forget that 
every activity should be utilized to this end. 

A second danger is that the teacher will make this course an imi- 
tation of the usual courses in ethics offered in college. Such a method 
is fatal. High-school instruction in ethics should he as different from 
college work in ethical theory as nature study in the elem.entary 
school is from college biology, or as high-school English is from uni- 
versity courses in philology or literary history. Concrete problems 
of home, school, vocation, community, should be the topics ; and gen- 
eralizations or principles should be brought into consciousness only 
as they clarify such actual problems. In the teaching of any subject 
it is always mischievous for the pupils to think that they have ideas 
when they have only words. The peril is gravest where the aim is 
daily right conduct. 

It is evident, then, that courses of this nature make special demands. 
They call in the first place for genuine, eager interest on the part of 
the teacher. Lacking this, they become dry monologues or the per- 
functory execution of so many items per period in a given syllabus. 
It is bad for pupils to dislike the reading of the best books because 
of poor teaching in literature. It is worse to have a similar dislike 
associated with ethical reflection. 

In the second place the teacher must possess special knowledge 
and special skill. He should be familiar with the principles of ethics, 
with the classic literature on the subject, and with the history of 
ethical thinking and of moral evolution. It is especially needful 
that he be trained in the application of ethical principles to the con- 
crete problems of present-day life. Since nothing is more disastrous 
in moral instruction than academic tediousness, it is here particu- 
larly that the teacher must possess that peculiar skill which can 
bring together the near and the remote, the immediately practical 
and the ideal, in ways interesting, dignified, and productive. Here, 
more perhaps than in the teaching of any other subject, are required 

1 For illustration of one type of method, see " Moral Instruction in the High School," 
by Frank C. Sharp, University of Wisconsin Bull. No. 303 ; High School Series, No. 7. 

32750°— 18 2 



10 MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUCATION. 

those special personal qualities by which the confidence of young 
people is won and retained. Among the temptations for the teacher 
to avoid are " gush, " censoriousness, cheap familiarity for the sake 
of " getting down to their level, " and the pedantry which emphasizes 
trivialities and forgets what boys and girls may reasonably be ex- 
pected to outgrow of their own accord. Nowhere is there greater 
need for tact, for broad, human sympathy and for the example which 
speaks far more convincingly than the most effective word. 

Where these requirements have been met, and where the other 
agencies of the school cooperate in the interests of the moral aim, the 
advantages of supplementing these agencies by scheduled moral in- 
struction offset the objections commonly urged. The desirability, 
therefore, of introducing such courses into any given school will de- 
pend upon the special conditions in that school. 

■Wniatever conclusion may be reached regarding the desirability of 
a distinct course in moral instruction in any given school, it is clear 
that the subjects taught, the teaching methods, the spirit of the class- 
room and of the school, all the activities both in the regular day's 
work and after school hours, can be employed to widen and deepen 
the pupils' understanding of right living, to encourage a genuine, 
abiding love of th6 finer modes of behavior, and to form right habits. 
How can this be accomplished ? 

III. MORAL VALUES IN PUPIL ACTIVITIES. 

First in importance as a moral agency ^ould be placed the actual 
performances of the pupils themselves. It is one thing to hear right 
conduct praised or see it exemplified; it is quite another and more 
necessary thing for the boys and girls themselves to do the acts. 
Character is essentially a matter of action, the habitual performance 
of certain kinds of deeds rather than others; and the only genuine 
way of learning how to do these deeds is to do them, just as tennis 
is learned only by playing it. Nobody really understands what " re- 
sponsibility " means until he has been intrusted with a task that has 
succeeded or has failed because of him. So with respect to " service," 
"generosity," and all the possible terms of the moral vocabulary; 
any genuine comprehension of them, as Aristotle pointed out, re- 
quires practice in the deeds themselves first. 

The better schooling of our times has seized upon the fact, not only , 
that this practice must come first in the order of learning, but that 
pupils take to activity so much more readily than they do to the I 
relatively passive business of listening or reading. They are eager! 
to engage in athletics, to run a school paper, to dance, to act plays, 1 
to build, to do dozens of things that merely sitting at a desk, study- 
ing and reciting, will never permit. One of the richest veins in all 



MOBAL VALUES IN SECONDABY EDUCATIOIT. 11 

education has been tapped in recent years by turning these energies 
to account. Instead of frowning, as in older days, upon the desire of 
the young to act upon their own initiative, we have learned that only 
upon these very interests can be laid the surest basis for healthy 
growth. 

It follows, therefore, that if the school is to help its pupils to live 
later the kind of lives which membership in the American democ- 
racy requires, provision must be made for them to live such lives in 
school years. Those ideals of a nobler human order will mean most 
to them which they have actually attempted to put into practice 
themselves. As Dr. Felix Adler once put it : 

With progress toward moral personality as the aim, the life of the school 
should anticipate the organization of all society along ethical lines by creating 
in the minds of the pupils the picture of such a society. From that life they 
are to catch the ideal which it is intended to symbolize. 

In the light of this viewpoint, consider to what a slight extent the 
more generous impulses can be developed by the kind of school pro- 
cedure which ordinarily prevails. In too many schools the aim en- 
couraged by the actual conduct of the work is of the type which lays 
major stress upon " looking out all the time for number one." For 
instance, is not prompting in recitation too often punished without a 
thought that back of this offense is a kindly desire, A^hich, instead of 
being thwarted, should rather be encouraged to express itself in some 
form of genuine helpfulness ? 

This is not to imply that any less training is needed in self-reliance, 
honesty, perseverance, obedience to authorities, respect for the rights 
of others. These still remain fundamental. But we have been 
obliged at last to recognize that equally necessary to preparation for 
democratic life is practice in worthy cooperation and worthy initia- 
tive. We have learned that there is something woefully lacking in 
a citizenship which does no more than obey the law and refrain from 
infringement upon the rights of neighbors. We can no longer con- 
ceive of democracy as mainly a matter of everyone for himself within 
the limits of the law. That conception is still too common. It is 
symbolized, as Dr. Dewey has pointed out, by the very equipment of 
the ordinary classroom. Each pupil sits by himself at a desk, which 
is fastened irremovably to its place. Eadi occupies his own little 
island, from which as a general rule communication with other islands 
is forbidden. This rigid separation typifies the importance attached 
to the virtues of noninterference. The class acts as a group only in 
obedience to orders from headquarters. 

Such a method overlooks two weighty considerations : In the first 
place, while even a democracy must obey orders, the rules are not 
decreed by an autocrat; they are willed by the group itself. E&- 



12 MOEAL VALUES IN" SECONDARY EDUCATION". 

sponsibility for the success or failure in the execution rests with 
those who not only obey the orders but make them. This is true of 
more than the administration of school routine. A school magazine, 
for instance, is in this sense a democratic institution to the extent 
that the students themselves initiate and run it. It chooses its own 
policies and selects its own managers to carry them out. It is not 
democratic when outside pressure, like that of the teachers, is neces- 
sary to keep it up. 

Secondly, the members of a democrac}'' must be animated by the 
spirit of cooperation, a spirit m.ore constructive than merely refrain- 
ing from interference, the si3irit of freely working together for the 
positive good of the whole. Initiative is encouraged in order that 
better contributions may be offered to the common task. In short, 
in a democracy ethically motivated, everj^one does his bit in behalf 
of worthy enterprises which he has helped to will into existence. 

This conception, we repeat, is a special need in the America of to- 
day and to-morrow. The old rule of " each for himself without in- 
fringement " has proved. a sadly unserviceable tool for our changed 
and changing social order. Not only has it encouraged an irrespon- 
sibilitj^ which opened the door wide to downright political corruption ; 
it has blinded us as a people to the shame of v/idespread poverty, 
disease, ignorance, vice, and general ineificiency in huge masses of 
our population. The war has at last brought home to us the fail- 
ure of our individualistic methods to solve the problems which call 
for collective action. We may be certain that the years ahead will 
hear an increasing emphasis upon the note of essentially cooperative 
enterprise. We shall be challenged as a nation to prove that effi- 
ciency is no monopoly of autocratic governments, but that self- 
governing democracies too can learn to work together effectively. 
Our newly reanimated pride in our country should therefore spur 
lis to fresh concern for the type of personal character w^hich demo- 
cratic living is especially commissioned to promote. 

Now, it is too much to expect school life to exhibit the perfect 
working of a democracy conceived in these terms. In the matter of 
freedom, for example, it would be unreasonable to permit inexperi- 
enced children to enjoy the liberties which only mature persons can 
manage. But the principles of initiative and cooperation are capa- 
ble of being put into practice in many ways indeed that high-school 
pupils can well employ. We want school life to be organized around 
the idea, not that each student is to do his utmost to get a better 
mark than his neighbor, but that all are expected to make a free 
offering of their best to the progress of the class and the school as a 
whole and through these, of the larger community. Bearing this in 
mind, let us consider a few typical instances of the resources at our 
command. 



MOKAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 13 

Give the pupils every possible chance to participate in the man- 
agement of the school life. Compare, for example, two types of 
assembly. In the okl-fashioned school the pupils gathered to sing a 
song or two, to hear the principal read from the Bible, to listen to an 
address from the principal or a visitor, and to hear individual 
"star" pupils, selected by the teacher, "speak pieces," likewise se- 
lected from above. Except for the singing there was no coopera- 
tion on the part of individuals or groups. The management being in 
the hands of the teachers, there was little or no chance for initiative 
on the part of the pupils. In the m.ain, the chief motive to which 
appeal was made was the desire for individual distinction, a motive 
at best inadequate, since only the few had a chance to shine as elocu- 
.tionists. 

To-day the better type of assembly is run by the pupils. Its suc- 
cess depends not on the execution of a teacher's decisions by a few, 
but on the voluntary cooperation of all. Working with a faculty 
adviser, they select the program and the ones who are to carry it 
out. It is a striking fact that where this is the case, their choice so 
frequently takes the form of a dramatic offering. The reasons we 
need not stop to analyze. The significant thing is the opportunity 
here afforded for the interplay of initiative, responsibility, and the 
spirit of teamwork. A class responsible, let us say, for a dramatic 
performance as the chief item on the program of a given date, is at 
once put to it as a group to do its best. It knows from experience 
what it means for auditors to be bored by a play poorly chosen or 
poorly acted. Realizing that the success or the failure depends 
chiefly upon itself, it feels a real obligation to select wisely. It must 
therefore encourage every individual in its membership to help the 
enterprise along. He must do his share to choose the right play, to 
pick the most competent performers, to act his own part well (even 
though he would have preferred the leading role), to assist in 
making stage properties, and in general to express and to stimulate 
the team spirit without which the undertaking is bound to fail. 

This is the point of view for all the activities of the school. Hence 
the value of pupil self-government wherever such a scheme represents 
a genuine cooperation among the pupils, themselves and between 
the pupils and the teachers. The latter are not at all to abrogate 
their functions. The main point is the intelligent sharing by the 
pupils themselves in the responsibilities of their own school com- 
munity. For their period of life, the school is or should be the spe- 
cial field for their activities as citizens. The proper performance of 
these activities now is the best preparation for the civic duties of the 
years to follow. 

Hence it is important that pupils learn from experience that, 
among other things, the law of the school is aimed at their best in- 



14 MOBAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

terest This they do see most readily when their social consciousness 
is enlisted to help frame and enforce the regulations under which 
they are to live. Thus in one of our high schools a valuable result 
was reaped from an experiment in leaving the care of the study 
periods to the pupils without supervision by the teachers. The 
scheme worked badly; and at the end of the year, the faculty voted 
its abandonment. The situation was saved, however, by the student 
council. It requested that the plan be given another trial. It saw 
that the matter was discussed earnestly in all the classes, proposed 
certain modifications and pledged the student body to faithful per- 
formance. The pledge was kept, and at the present time there is 
little likelihood of a return to the old system. 

The thing of special value in affairs of this kind is the first-hand . 
experience of the students in meeting the problems of their own 
corporate life. They appreciate more readily that their school is 
a community with certain functions to perform for the good of the 
entire membership, i. e., that it must safeguard the health of its 
members, protect them against injury from the indifferent or ill- 
disposed, bring the weakest up to standard in intelligence, refine- 
ment, and moral character, and encourage all to reach new and higher 
levels. These are the tasks of the adult citizenship into which they 
are later to enter. They lea.n, and perhaps nothing else can teach 
them so well, what these ta^ require in the way of free and generous 
cooperation. How much their understanding of certain fundamental 
problems of democracy is furthered may be gathered from the fol- 
lowing testimony. One student writes: 

Whether the system of unsupervised study periods works or not depends upon 
each member of the group. Some are unable to control themselves. They 
make the plan fail since the teacher must again be placed in charge. Such a 
backward step usually takes several months to regain. On the other hand, some 
study periods of this kind may be carried on very successfully if there are 
present enough of the older students who can practice self-control and are 
not afraid to take it upon themselves to remonstrate with the younger and 
more unruly pupils. 

Another student writes: 

Give us a chance to do something on our own responsibility. The academic 
part of school life offers little field for such training. Perhaps we are too 
young to realize the importance of what we ought to be learning. But if we 
were given complete control of such matters as study periods, athletics, as- 
semblies, and social functions, even if mistakes were made, it would not be a 
very serious matter. But I doubt if many mistakes would be made, as even the 
most scatter-brained, frivolous people at our age turn out best when given 
responsible positions. 

The great trouble with the so-called self-government at our schools is that 
the faculty doesn't seem to trust us. That is why there is so little interest 
among the pupils at large. They feel that the student board is a mere figure- 
head. No one will ever be interested in anything unless made to feel that the 
movement or institution needs his help. 



MORAL VALUES IN SECOKDARY EDUCATION". IS 

These declarations convey their own comment. They indicate 
incidentally the important educative influence of the pupils upon 
one another. That " even the scatter-brained, frivolous members 
turn out best when given responsible positions " is undoubtedly due 
not only to their sincere interest in the tasks thus intrusted to them, 
but to their being held to account by those whose favorable judg- 
ment they genuinely respect, namely, their own peers. A lad who 
for one reason or another can escape with a passing mark from his 
teacher in English or history knows that bluff will not succeed with 
his comrades. For a game lost through his negligence, or for a per- 
formance or an outing spoiled by his poor conduct, he is certain to 
hear from his peers with a sharpness that carries home. The same is 
true of more than reproof. How frequently does it happen that 
young people will take from other students advice that they reject 
when it comes from the more or less uncongenial world represented 
by the faculty ! Hence the wisdom of enlisting in the school manage- 
ment the active interest of those to whom the other pupils look up. 
Democracy rests upon public opinion. The soundest public opinion 
is generated where the best leaders receive the amplest encourage- 
ment. 

In some schools the chance for these new expressions is offered 
even in connection with what has always seemed to be peculiarly and 
exclusively the concern of the teacher, namely, the choice of topics 
for study and the conduct of the recitation. Just as a group will 
make itself responsible for selecting a play and presenting it, so in 
connection with the regular worik in history or in science, let us say, 
for example, a group will select some topic for investigation and 
hold itself responsible for teaching the results to the rest of the 
class. For illustration consult Scott's Social Education and Johns- 
ton's Modem High School, chapter 4.* 

All encouragement should be given to cooperative enterprises in 
aid of philanthropies and other forms of civic welfare. No one 
can fail to appreciate the moral value of these activities after seeing 
a class go through all the steps involved in an undertaking such as 
the following: A class which had become interested in the problem 
of a poor family decided that the best help it could give was to 
raise money to enable the daughter to take a two-year course at a 
technical school instead of going to work at once. The value of what 
was taught by this discussion alone is apparent. Then came the con- 
sideration of ways and means, candy sales, dramatic performance, 
and so on. The problem enlisted the participation of every member 
of the class in one committee or another. From the beginning to 
the final handing over of the money to the settlement worker in 

* In this cliapter see espedaUy p. 260, on helping backward pupUa. 



16 MORAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUCATION. 

charge, no one was without some responsibility to his class for a 
project which that class as a whole had voted. 

Last summer the pupils of the Ethical Culture School cultivated 
8 acres of land on a farm near New York City. The report in the 
school paper, after mentioning items like the 52,000 ears of corn, the 
several thousand quarts of beans, etc., which were raised and canned 
or sold outright, says : 

What was most encouraging, however, was the way in which the spirit of 
cooperation was shown. The whole project was in itself one of cooperation with 
the Government, to swell the food supply this winter. Our work was clone by 
various squads, and our entertainments were provided by various committees. 
The way the boys in the fields and the girls in the house divided the labor 
efficiently and fairly proved that cooperative schemes v>'ere not merely ideal, 
but also practicable. 

Our experience on the farm this summer has been one we shall not easily 
forget. We have had a very jolly time, we have been able to help our country 
along lines for which we were best fitted, and we have gained a knowledge of 
the true worth of cooperation, which is of inestimable value to us. * * * 
When the actual time to leave came, we felt a bit sorry, but in other ways 
happy; We have had a fine vacation, a vacation which was well spent. It 
makes us feel so much better to know that we have actually produced some- 
thing for the common good ; that what we have produced means something ; 
that it counts. * * * We have worked for a good and practical end, and 
in doing that we have each learned precious lessons in living together, in work- 
ing together, in laughing together, and in facing certain problems together. 

Another illustration: In a small western town a class in civics 
came to the conclusion that there was need for improvement in the 
community. It arranged a series of public meetings, invited parents 
to attend and experts to deliver addresses. As an outcome it helped 
to secure, among other results, the establishment of a system of gar- 
bage collection for the town, the emplo3''ment of a municipal nurse, 
and the establishment of a bathing beach with bathhouses for the 
public use. Even if every school can not teach citizenship by such 
immediate practice as this, the principle can be applied to local con- 
ditions in a variety of ways. The chief value consists in learning 
how to work for worthy social ends through voluntary cooperation. 

Let it be repeated, however, that the way to cultivate the spirit of 
service is to begin with rendering service to one's own immediate 
community. Hence the desirability of membership in the school 
orchestra or glee club, of running the school paper, managing the 
school bank, assisting backward pupils, supplying stage carpentry, 
making bookshelves, umbrella stands, waste-paper baskets, flower 
boxes, apparatus for the laboratories, or repairing school furniture. 

Nor should it be overlooked that services of this kind draw the 
pupils more closely to their school. It is a matter of familiar ob- 
servation that people are apt to become more firmly attached to an 



MORAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 17 

institution by reason of what they themselves do for it than by virtue 
of what it does for them. Young people who have helped to build 
a school playground or prepare a school garden are much more likely 
to keep the grounds in good shape than those who come into a place 
where everything has been made ready for them beforehand. Like 
adults they cherish that to which they have given themselves. The 
experiences related by Booker T. Washington in " Working with the 
Hands, " have been proved true elsevhere ; to care for your com- 
munity, perform a voluntary service for it. 

An illustration of what can be done in this direction in urban high 
schools is contained in the following report of the manner in which 
the new pupils were registered in the Washington Irving High School 
in New York. As the girls from the elementary school entered — 

They were met at the door by a reception committee of pupils who made them 
feel perfectly at home and showed them just what to do. Each member escorted 
a new girl to the registration table where 26 young ladies recorded the entrants. 

One whose last name began with K formed in line with the others under the 
placard K, or if her name was Robinson, she walked over to the girl under the 
sign R and told her all about herself. After she had registered, she found at 
her side a delightful, chatty girl, who treated her as if she had known her all 
her life. This girl took her through the building and showed her all about her 
alma mater to be. She asked her what she was particularly interested in. 
Did she like debating or music? Well, then she must be sure to join the musical 
and debating clubs. And she took her over and introduced her to the presidents 
of these organizations. 

All this time she had not met a single teacher, nor had she received a single 
order or command. She had simply been welcomed to her future alma mater by 
her equals, who were glad that she had come, and who hoped that she would 
remain to honor the school, to educate herself in the finest sense, and to form 
lifelong friendships begun already on her first day. 

More than 1,300 applications for admission were received. The chairman of 
the ushers saw that every girl was taken care of and she seemed to be in a 
dozen places at once, always pleasant and hospitably smiling. The principal 
walked about the school delighted. He knew that the impression these hun- 
dreds of girls were getting on their first day would abide and would strongly 
initiate an attitude of cheerfulness and courtesy throughout the school life. 
" How much better is this," said he, " than having the new girls met by a corps 
of teachers tired out with writing down names. Listen : Did you hear that?" 
He was standing near the main entrance of the school, and a " Glad to meet 
you " rang out clear and hearty. 

" Glad to meet you," the principal repeated. " Why, if the teachers were driv- 
ing away at writing down name after name would they have time for a greeting 
like that? Would they feel like giving a handshake and a smile? People are 
wondering why so many youngsters run away from school or get working 
papers as soon as they are of age. Why don't they stop to think a minute and 
consider the spirit in the usual schools? Nobody smiles, nobody has time for 
courtesy, nobody tries to make the boy or girl feel at home. Everybody has 
something to growl about, to demand, to enforce. If you go to a restaurant or 
a theater, they don't try to order you about or to punish you. They try to make 

32750°— 18 3 



18 MORAL VALUES IN SECOISTDAEY EDUCATIOK. 

you feel at ease. They want you to come again. If the schools tried this 
method, the number of pupils who leave before they finish their course would 
decrease as by miracle. 

Note the importance of what those pupils received who contributed 
their assistance. It is true that only a small number out of the en- 
tire student body enjoyed this particular opportunity. The prin- 
ciple, nevertheless, remains fruitful, and it is no exaggeration to say 
that the greatest step forward in the pedagogy of character build- 
ing will be taken by those schools that find methods of enlisting 
every one of their students in activities of cooperative service. 

IV. THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPRETING EXPERIENCE AND 
SUGGESTING NEW IDEALS. 

In reacting to-day against formal teaching and in emphasizing 
the need of learning by experience, there is danger of going to the 
extreme of relying exclusively upon the latter resource. How essen- 
tial it is for the pupils actually to live out for themselves the prin- 
ciples of right conduct we have here attempted to enforce. But it 
needs also to be urged that for our boys and girls to live through 
certain experiences is not enough. What is most valuable in these 
experiences must be interpreted to them; the social and ethical im- 
plications must somewhere and at some time be lifted very definitely 
into conscious understanding and volition.^ 

To appreciate how futile it is to trust " experience " alone to im- 
prove character we need only note how often it happens, for instance, 
that boys get from their athletic experience little other than a certain 
coarsening of their moral fiber. 

To get the most out of an " experience " there must be more or less under- 
standing of its better possibilities. A boy who is disgruntled because he thinks 
he is a good pitcher but is obliged to play center field may be forced by his 
comrades to do his allotted share in the work of his team, and thus, according 
to some teachers, be educated into obedience to a group will. The simple fact 
remains, nevertheless, that this experience is of no value unless its ethical 
significance is grasped. Left to himself, the lad may get no more out of the 
situation than a mood of ugliness. Par from being " socialized," he may feel 
nothing but antisocial emotions. A word or two of interpretation may do 
much, however, to send the boy back to his undesired post with a clearer no- 
tion of responsibility and a helpful resolve to live up to it. A member of one 
of the writer's classes told of a pupil who had received help in a situation of 
this sort. Disliking his position on the school team, the lad had resigned, 

1 Among the good results that have come from the " formal-discipline " controversy has 
been the freshened conviction that returns in character building can not be expected to 
occur automatically and Inevitably from training in certain given habits like accuracy, 
perseverance, etc. Shopwork, for instance, by requiring faithful craftsmanship would 
seem to offer unique occasion for the pupil to become acquainted with standards of honest 
achievement. We may be sure, however, that unless this ideal is brought specifically to 
his attention, taken to heart as an ideal, and reenforced by teaching outside the work- 
shop, there is less likelihood of his deriving this profit from his hours at the beach. 



MORAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 19 

against the protests of his fellow athletes. A month later he was allowed to 
play a leading r61e In a performance of " Julius Caesar," where he acquitted 
himself with all credit. His teacher thereupon reminded him of the part con- 
tributed to his success by the obscure but none the less important efforts of 
the other actors. The boy was ashamed and saw his selfishness in its true light. 
Whatever the experience, it counts for most when its fuller implications are 
thus comprehended ; and here the clearer and wider insight of the teacher may 
render valuable aid/ 

Even at its best a group activity can do no more than adjust the 
participants to the ethical standards of that group, whereas moral 
education, especially for pupils in their teens, should aim rather at 
the creation of constantly higher levels of right relationship. Every 
teacher knows how a group can often be led to raise its moral level by 
suggestions from the teacher to the leading spirits, who thereupon 
win the others over. Consider, for example, the success of some 
schools in getting the code of the honor system to displace the pupils' 
own code in which cheating is regarded as clever. What moral in- 
struction does is to attempt more systematically to secure these better 
interpretations of experience and to suggest opportunities for experi- 
ences still worthier. For a school to forget this need for increasingly 
finer codes is to be untrue to its function as an agency of progress. 

By interpreting experiences, then, we mean something more and 
other than offering boys a list of reasons why, for example, they 
should play their games fairly. We have in mind rather the attempt 
to create a background of vivid ideals for the whole of life. For 
instance, it is not sufficient that the pupil be indignant at a wrong 
which he himself has suffered from unfair play. His experience 
should be made to contribute to a conception of manhood that will 
feel scorn for meanness and injustice in any form; and, best of all, 
it should help him shape for himself a life plan wherein a readiness 
to champion just causes is a leading principle. ) 

Ethical interpretation, in short, may be regarded as a necessary 
bridge between two sets of experiences ; that is, between the conduct 
already performed and the better sort which is yet to be practiced. If 
this seems to be imposing adult conceptions upon minds too young, 
let us remember that if these higher standards are not held up in the 
years of adolescence, there is that much less chance of their being 
accepted later when the character has grown more fixed. It is an 
unwarranted extreme to maintain that every ideal presented to young 
people must be capable of immediate translation into action. Like 
childhood dreams of a distinguished career, many a vision cherished 
in youth is no less precious for being obliged to wait long indeed for 
the chance to be put into practice. 

1 Henry Neumann : " Some Misconception of Moral Education." International .Journal 
of Ethics, April. 1912. Also in " Second International Moral Education Congress — • 
Papers Contributed by American Writers," 2 West Sixty-fourth Street, New York. 



20 MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUOATIOJT. 

That the ideals suggested in school will fail to take hold in num- 
berless instances is to be expected. Aside from the fact that a truly 
scientific psychology of character is still scarcely in its infancy, we 
must reckon with the circumstance that the best efforts of the school 
are constantly handicapped by the lower tone of the environment 
outside. Surely, however, this is no reason for abandoning the at- 
tempt to establish the worthier standards by every method at our 
disposal. 

Much of the controversy over this problem would disappear if 
we remembered that we are not confronted with a choice between 
experience on the one hand and interpretation on the other. If the 
error of the past has been to rely upon formal teaching, it is no solu- 
tion to turn now exclusively to another one-sided method. The rem- 
edy would seem to lie in getting the most out of every resource 
available. 

What are these resources? We have already considered the social 
activities and the problem of scheduled moral instruction. Let us 
turn next to the rich possibilities in the various daily studies. 

V. ETHICAL VALUES IN THE VARIOUS STUDIES. 

The value of any of the subjects in the curriculum is measured by 
the importance of the help it offers the pupil in meeting his many 
life problems. It devolves upon the teacher, therefore, to make each 
subject yield its utmost in the way of moral inspiration and better 
understanding of what right living signifies. A wealth of oppor- 
tunity is opened in this direction when once we conceive right living 
in the broad sense assumed by this report. It is not at all necessary 
that a " moral " be tagged to every lesson. The point is simply that 
wherever the day's work offers the chance to create a new ideal or put 
new meaning into an old one, or to broaden or deepen the student's 
understanding of human excellence, the chance should be utilized 
with every confidence that the time thus spent is eminently worth 
while. 

1. BOCIAI- STUDIES. 

Dealing as they do so pointedly with the relationships of individ- 
uals and of classes, nations, and other groups, such studies as history, 
geography, civics, and economics present the teacher with unique oc- 
casion to clarify his pupils' comprehension of moral right and wrong. 

In grades 10, 11, and 12 these subjects can be so taught as to bring 
home certain large conceptions like that of social heredity, i. e., the 
truth that the acts of one generation bear fruit for good or ill in the 
lives of the generations that follow. For instance, when a ship 
landed in Jamestown in 1619 with a cargo of slaves, the consequences 
of that act appeared over 200 years later in all the tragedies 



MOEAL VALUES IIv^ SECONDARY EDUCATION. 21 

of the Civil War. Our pupils will be better citizens if they form the 
habit of forecasting the effect likely to be produced upon future 
generations by what society is doing or failing to do at the present 
time. 

A second conception of this kind is that of social progress. Too 
frequent an obstacle to social adA^ance is the inability of great masses 
of people to understand that prevailing practices, in spite of their 
long and apparently secure intrenchment, should and can be changed 
for the better. One of the aims of history teaching should be to 
show how m.an has improved upon his customs and institutions, and 
to encourage the conviction that further change is still desirable and 
possible. As Prof. Robinson says in The New History, there is every 
need to throw the weight of our influence on the side of the new 
truth which has not yet won recognition rather than on the side of 
what is already well established : 

At every crossing on tlie road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit 
is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past. Let us have no 
fear lest the fairest towers of former days be sufficiently defended. The least 
that the most trained among us can do is not to add to the immense weight 
which nature drags along. 

Care must be exercised, however, to keep young people from mini- 
mizing the good even in institutions which need reconstruction. 
The first essential to making the environment over for the better is a 
genuine appreciation of what still deserves to be honored. In this 
connection pupils should be reminded how largely to-day's advance 
over the past is due to the very labors of which they may now be 
tempted to think lightly. For example, we know vastly more about 
America to-day than Columbus knew, but only because of what he 
achieved. " A dwarf perched upon the shoulders of a giant " sees 
farther than the giant does; but he should remember why. 

The social studies present an opportunity for the teacher to clarify 
those misused terms " liberty " and " equality." There is a better 
reason for prizing American freedom than the fact that it permits 
one to do as he pleases within the limits of noninterference with 
others. On moral grounds, freedom is the opportunity to express 
what in each human being is best. Our political liberty, therefore, 
is to be cherished for the opportunity which it affords the humblest 
citizen not to do as he chooses, but to share to the full extent of his 
unique powers in the common responsibility for the improvement of 
American life. Emphasis should be placed upon the desire to par- 
ticipate in common duties rather than upon the enjoyment of privi- 
leges. The hope of the recent revolution in Eussia is that talented 
men and women, instead of being sent to Siberia as heretofore, may 
now be encouraged when they offer their gifts to their country. Po- 
litical freedom is to be prized for providing such a chance. This is 



22 MORAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

the reason why voluntary group activities on the part of the pupils 
afford such excellent preparation for citizenship. The idea to be 
stressed in these group undertakings is the advantage of participat- 
ing voluntarily in the common responsibility. 

The subject of equality may be treated in like manner. Americans 
are far from equal in intelligence, character, and power. Here is an 
excellent occasion to discuss with the pupils the moral basis of re- 
spect and superiority. Men are morally equal in the sense that each 
is presumed to be capable of appreciating his duties and of trying to 
live up to them. The most unlettered man is dignified by the fact 
that he possesses this mark of what is essentially human. Freedom 
and equality, therefore, are tributes to the dignity suggested by 
men's possibilities, not by their actual accomplishments. If the 
right to vote rested upon perfect fitness for civic responsibility, 
which of us would be wise enough and good enough to merit the 
franchise? Equality assumes that each can try to be his best. Since 
this best varies, however, with the individual, political equality 
should be regarded as a means of permitting the valuable inequali- 
ties to make their contribution. Expertness should not be sup- 
pressed or handicapped by caste restrictions of any kind whatso- 
ever. 

With this conception of freedom and equality must go a corre- 
sponding respect for superiority, that is, for superior ability not 
chiefly in money-making, but in artistic, scientific, philosophical, po- 
litical, and moral achievement. America should disprove the state- 
ment that democracy levels downward. 

Democracy also requires ethical attitudes toward the relatively 
undeveloped. The idea is that the undeveloped are to be respected 
for their potential excellence and that the highest obligation of the 
more privileged is to give the handicapped the utmost encouragement 
and help to develop their own unique best. 

Other instances might be mentioned to illustrate how the teacher 
may enlighten the moral judgment of his pupils. Back of the laws 
of every State lie certain moral convictions based upon the experience 
of generations ; and these convictions, such as respect for fundamental 
human rights, should be interpreted. Elsewhere in this report refer- 
ence is made to the opportunities for pupils to learn truths of civic 
relationship by practice.^ 

The present world crisis suggests another occasion presented by 
the social studies, the chance to enter into a sympathetic apprecia- 

1 See p. 13. Consider, for example, the insight into a necessary field of civic enterprise 
which one class obtained by discussing the problem of how it could best help a family 
threatened with Incipient tuberculosis. Before it voted to mal^e Itself responsible for the 
sending of a quart of milk every day and to urge another class to provide a daily supply 
of eggs, it learned many things about the reasons for this particular case of distress, and 
the need, among others, of a public nurse to follow up the required care. 



MOBAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 23 

tion of national ideals other than our own. A broad respect for 
peoples who are different from us is by no means incompatible with 
a fervent love of America. On the contrary, American patriotism 
can be purified of its baser elements only by the attempt to under- 
stand and respect nationalities unlike ourselves. Eespect for like- 
ness is relatively easy ; respect for diversity is harder ; but for that 
reason it needs special emphasis in the school. This is particularly 
necessary, since the old preponderance of a single racial stock in our 
country no longer exists. We should utilize to the utmost the values 
in this diversity. At the present time even the various native types, 
such as the New Englander, the southerner, the westerner, can 
hardly be said to respect their different points of view as much as 
they should. 

In grades 7, 8, and 9 the conceptions just mentioned can scarcely 
be developed as fully as in the later grades; yet the right kind of 
teacher can introduce pupils even of 12 or 13 years of age to 
something of the point of view herein suggested, and, as with the 
older pupils, connect that point of view with the problems of their 
own group life in home, school, and community. For instance, one 
of the most important lessons in citizenship can be learned in the 
home by trying to get on properly with uncongenial brothers and 
sisters. 

At no time in the secondary school ought the opportunity be over- 
looked for character building through the inspiration afforded by 
the study of great lives. Nor should the admiration of the pupils 
be confined to the heroes of their own country. How many have any 
real sense that Washington was not the only liberator in the world ? 
They should be introduced to what is ennobling in the lives of men 
and women in other lands, e. g., William the Silent, St. Francis of 
Assisi, Hugo Grotius, the brothers Grimm, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir 
Thomas More, Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur — ^the field of 
stimulating biography is rich. 

At every stage much can be accomplished by discussing the moral 
bearings of the facts about group life with which history is essen- 
tially concerned. 

It is not kings and dynasties, campaigns and statutes, that we liave to study 
primarily, but problems; and problems are Mstory in the making. Unless the 
historian can find the moral problem in the event of the past, he is dealing 
only with dry bones.* 

In other words, since people are obliged in every age to learn how 
to live together, history can be made one of the most fruitful sub- 
jects in the school when this point of view is applied to problems such 

1 David g. Muzzey : " Ethical Values in History." Second International Moral Educa- 
tion Congress — Papers Contributed by American Writers, p. 109 (published by American 
Bthical Union, 2 West Sixty-fourth Street, New York). 



24 MORAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

as the following: Ways of earning a living; social classes, their 
conflicts and adjustments; attitudes toward those who differ — toler- 
ance, intolerance, democratic appreciation, and encouragement; patri- 
otism and changes in the conception of loyalty; science and its re- 
lation to health, industry, transportation, social intercourse; war and 
peace ; education ;* recreation ; changing moral standards. The chief 
value of any such study should be the light that it throws upon 
similar problems in present life. 

The most scrupulous care is needed, however, to guard against 
pointing a moral by presenting as fact what sound scholarship in 
history will not warrant. Care is also required lest pupils get false 
views about heroes and the common people. To make history a mat- 
ter of " the biographies of great men " is one fallacy ; to put all the 
emphasis upon mass action and slight the contribution of leadership 
is another. It is likewise fallacious to overemphasize the economic 
interpretation and minimize the force of ideals. 

2. LITEBATUEE. 

Literature is especially rich in ethical values. Whatever else a 
literary work may be, it is essentially an attempt to offer an interpre- 
tation of life. Shakespeare never intended his plays to serve as ma- 
terial for school examinations. He tried to interest his audiences in 
the attempts of a Brutus, a Macbeth, a Hamlet to work out certain 
big life problems; and he outdid his fellow dramatists because he 
accomplished this task with keener insight and greater artistic skill. 
The cue for the teacher, therefore, is to help his pupils evaluate life's 
aims more soundly because of the truths which the author has made 
more striking and more clear. 

This does not at all require that the literature period be given 
solely to discussion of moral questions. The literary work should 
first and last be enjoyed in the spirit that sends an adult to the 
theater or to a novel by a favorite author for an evening's recrea- 
tion. The characters may be never so fine, the sentiments never so 
exalted and valuable; but unless the pupils are really stirred, what- 
ever moral stimulus the poem or story can afford will fail of its 
object. To become moving forces in their lives, the high behaviors 
with which literature deals must genuinely be admired and the* low 
behaviors must genuinely be condemned by the young people them- 
selves. "Therefore, in teaching a literary work, it is of primary im- 
portance that what the pupils read is first enjoyed. One of the 
surest means to this object is to introduce a new work by the most 

1 Is not something lacking in our conception of history teaching wlben pupils are grad- 
uated from American high schools without the slightest acquaintance with the labors of 
men like Horace Mann in behalf of public education? 



MOEAL VALUES IK SECONDARY EDUCATIOJST. 25 

expressive reading of which the teacher is capable. Where this is 
done, it frequently happens that he need do little or nothing more to 
make the literature period ethically productive ; the womanly dignity 
of Ellen Douglas, the chivalry of Gareth, the modesty of Herve Eiel, 
carry their own appeal. 

Where further heli3 from the teacher is needed, it may take such 
form as the following. The pupils may be led to reflect and report 
upon such problems as these : Why do we admire Brutus in spite of 
his failure more than Mark Antony, the successful? Why do Dr. 
Hudson and other critics think that in The Merchant of Venice 
Shakespeare shows the degrading effect of persecution upon both 
Shylock and his tormentors? Or the discussion might institute a 
comparison between the influence of Lady Macbeth upon her hus- 
band and the power for good exerted, for example, by the wife of 
Wendell Phillips. Or the pupils might be asked to consider how far 
America lives up to the ideals of Burns's A Man's a Man 'for A' 
That. 

lur general the literature period can be employed to extend and to 
clarify the thinking of the pupils about right living along such lines 
as these:. What objects in life are most worth while? What are the 
soundest standards of success and failure ? What . are the conse- 
quences, in our own lives and in those of others, which reach beyond 
the obvious, immediate end of our endeavors? What are the per- 
sonal difficulties in the way of the noblest behaviors? How can these 
obstacles be overcome ? In short, whether by interpreting the mean- 
ing of a passage or scene or by comparing characters or by stating 
as clearly as possible the truths which the book illumines, the teacher 
should connect the lit<3rature with the lives of the pupils, remember- 
ing that the essential function of literature is to clarify and enrich 
the understanding of life. Not simply to assist them in forming 
their own judgments upon books which they will read later is the 
goal, but to help them reach sound conceptions of the best aims for 
their own lives, and here no greater help can be offered our pupils 
than to consider with them the truth or untruth in the interpreta- 
tions of life presented in the objects of their study. 

As in other subjects, precious material for character building is 
found in biographies.^ 

Humor in the school no longer needs apology. The contribution 
of laughter to health of spirit is beyond all question. The teaching 
of literature can be specially helpful in refining the sense of huanor 
by cultivating taste for fun of the cleaner, kindlier, subtler sort. 

See also section 8, Art Studies. 

» See p. 28, first paragraph under Natural Sciences. 



26 MOEAL VALUES IN SECOE-DARY EDUCATIOlSr. 

». fokEign languages. 

The study of foreign languages gives the opportunity to enter 
appreciately into the lives and aspirations of people who are unlike us. 
It is not sufficient, as has been said, that we respect foreign nationali- 
ties simply for their points of likeness to ourselves. Each nation 
has its unique contributions to make toward perfecting the general 
type. Respect for others, therefore, on the ground of their very 
difference from ourselves is quite as essential as the recognition of 
broad underlying similarities. 

In the daily exercises in translation much should be made of the 
responsibility for reporting correctly what another person says or 
writes. It ought to be easy to make pupils see the mischief in loose 
or inaccurate reproduction of the statements of other persons, e. g.j 
gossip, rumor, or distorted versions of the truth. The lessons in 
translation should remind the pupils of the need of rendering accu- 
rately not simply the letter of another's utterance, but the spirit. 

For further values, see section 2, Literature. 

4. EWGLISfi COMPOSITION". 

The chief aim of composition work is the efficient imparting of 
ideas to others. From this poirt of view pupils should be held to 
the essential consideration that to convey ideas or truths to others 
it is necessary jBrst to be honest with one's self, to realize the gaps in 
one's own information and the need of further study to acquire the 
necessary knowledge. Consciousness of one's own ignorance and an 
open mind are essentials of character no less than of ability to write 
or speak effectively. 

Success in composition work requires the pupil to take the point of 
view of others. More is exacted than that he himself be convinced 
of the truth which he wishes to convey. His object is to impart that 
truth to others. Hence he needs that training in imagination which 
will enable him to look at things through the eyes of other people. 

Much can be done through themes that especially challenge ethi- 
cal thinking. For example, a composition on " The Most Disagree- 
able Occupation I Know" can be used as the starting point for 
many a helpful train of thought in personal and social ethics. 

We need higher standards of debate than those ordinarily preva- 
lent. There is moral danger when young people are more eager 
to win a victory in debate than to achieve the right object, a clari- 
fication of the truth. So common is this mistaken attitude that it 
may often be advisable to let the work in oral composition take 
the form of discussion rather than formal debate.* 

* See Johnston : " The Modern High School," pp. 470 et seq. 



MORAL VALUES IN SECONDABY EDUGATIOU, 27 

6. HOUSEHOLD ARTS. 

Morally important as it always is to learn to do one's work well, 
it is especially so in homemaking. So greatly does human welfare, 
in every sense from the lowest to the highest, depend upon the effi- 
ciency and the moral atmosphere of the home that special atten- 
tion to its many problems is of the highest necessity. Under our 
present economic life, the maker of a home needs a more extended 
training than in former times; she needs an insight into problems 
of to-day and a command of the best methods available through 
modern science. 

The paramount concern of a good home should be the personality 
which it is to develop in all its members. A home .is something more 
than a place for the rearing of the young. Therefore, physical 
well-being, comfort, refinements, beauty should all be valued in the 
light of their contribution to growth of character in both the parents 
and the children. 

In this regard it is worth noting that the housekeeper who em- 
ploys labor can be helped into a better relationship toward her em- 
ploj^ees by first-hand knowledge of what their work necessitates. 
She is im.m.easurably more fitted to appreciate their service if she 
herself has done housework; she is more likely to want her chil- 
dren also to show such comprehension. Besides, much friction can 
be avoided and the general tone of the home raised by sensible man- 
agement of its numerous tasks. There are many households which 
still need the shrewd advice offered in that picture of the De Cover- 
ley home where Sir Roger's wise economies "made his mind un- 
troubled and consequently unapt to vent peevish expressions or give 
passionate or inconsistent orders to those about him." 

The following suggestions will indicate how a course in household 
arts can be made rich in content of distinct ethical value: 

The home in history^ — Study the functions of the home in the 
progress of mankind. Compare the home witli even the best- 
equipped orphan asylum in the matter of developing individual 
aptitudes. The teacher has an excellent chance to introduce the 
older pupils to sounj:! ideals of marriage by emphasizing the fact 
that the joint care of their children is the best means for father and 
mother both to develop their own personalities. 

Social forces afecting the home. — Consider how home life is af- 
fected for better or worse by urbanization, commercialized recrea- 
tion, etc. 

The respoTisibility of the consumer. — The eagerness to follow any 
fashion so long as it is new plays a part in the dislocation of indus- 

^ On this topic the teacher will find much that is useful for her own guidance in Geod- 
sell'a " The Family as a Social aad Educational Institution" (Macmillaa), 



28 MORAL VALUES IIT SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

try, helps to create seasons of unemployment, and enconrages the 
making of commodities which wear out quickly. The work of con- 
sumers' leagues, child labor committees, etc., may be studied to ad- 
vantage. 

Cooperative societies in America and abroad. — Pupils should know 
something of what is being done to meet the cost of living by con- 
sumers' societies. For information address Cooperative League of 
America, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York. 

Extravagance and thrift. — Temperance is not exclusively a matter 
of men's refraining from alcoholic stimulants. Women and chil- 
dren may be intemperate in their demands for sweets, for ornament, 
for recreation. 

Beauty. — How distinguished from luxury? For -moral value, of 
beauty see page 30. A home made beautiful is simply a home ar- 
rayed in the setting deserved by the ideal for which it stands. Lux- 
ury is overelaboration for the sake of excessive comfort or for the 
sake of mere display of wealth. Beauty stimulates ; luxury enervates. 

Health frohlems may be treated in correlation with biology and 
and physical culture. The opportunties for the discussion of such 
matters as self-control lie upon the surface. The matter of teaching 
sex hygiene will depend upon local conditions. Where the subject 
is presented, it may perhaps be best not to overemphasize it by sepa- 
rate treatment, but to introduce it as a normal corollary to other in- 
struction. See also page 34. • 

These are only a few instances of the opportunities afforded by the 
course in household arts to consider ethical problems of wide im- 
portance. 

6. NATUEAL SCIENCES. 

Whatever may be the aim of science teaching in colleges and uni- 
versities, in the high school it must always keep in the foreground 
the close tie between knowledge and human welfare. Instruction in 
the sciences should therefore be correlated with history to show how 
man's increasing knowledge of the physical order has affected his 
health, his industries, his homemaking, his intercourse with his fellow 
beings in war and in peace. Much should be made of the biographies 
of men who have contributed to the common heritage. This is im- 
portant in order that pupils may appreciate the dependence of past 
and present upon the efforts of those who have gone before, catch the 
inspiration of lives dominated by lofty ideals, profit from the secret 
of their success, and remember the undying contributions of the 
heroes of peace.^ While warriors have undoubtedly done much to 
benefit mankind, the school should correct false notions of the su- 

iThe behavior of Darwin and Wallace with respect to credit for the honor of being 
first in the field of evolutionary research illustrates how devotion to a great idea can lift 
men above petty jealousies. 



MOKAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 29 

premacy of military or even political glory by emphasizing the labors 
of science in the elevation of man from the level of the brute. 

The science teacher can clarify the pupils' understanding of the 
meaning of law, inasmuch as the natural sciences deal with a realm 
of eternal principles Avhich the caprices and feelings of mankind 
neither create nor alter. 

Great care should be exercised, however, against treating human 
life as if it were Vv'holly subject to the principles found valid in the 
nonhuman world. Biology affords a case in point. Much mischief 
results from regarding man too exclusively as the kinsman of the 
lower orders. In his world, for example, " The struggle for exist- 
ence " and " the survival of the fittest " should possess a meaning 
that they can not have in the realm of plant and animal life, i. e., 
fitness to survive is something quite other than moral right to survive. 
Or, to take another illustration, better than " adjustment to environ- 
ment " as an aim for human life is the exercise of man's capacity to 
protest against his environment, if need be, and to reshape it upon 
ideal lines. It is quite possible to interpret man in terms of his like- 
ness to his inferiors ; but this is only half the story. The other half, 
infinitely the better half, is the tale of hov^^ man surpasses plant and 
animal. 

Recognition of these differences should not be left to accident. 
Man, like the animal, acts upon instinct; but, unlike the lower crea- 
tures, he can be taught to take certain attitudes toward his natural 
proclivities. Although he too, for instance, has his physical Avants, 
like hunger, he can be taught the etiquette of the table and other 
codes of decency. Like the animal, he feels the call to preserve his 
own life ; but it is no less a truth that when a ship is sinking, right- 
minded men make v/ay in the life-boats for women and children. 
This distinction should be lifted into a. place of primary importance 
in the teaching scheme. In view of the tendency of our day to stress 
the "naturalness" of man's impulses, the resultant moral damage 
should be forestalled by using every opportunity to emphasize man's 
power to control his instincts by his reason and his will. 

In the daily methods of science study, attention should be directed 
to the importance of open-minded investigation, the need of reserv- 
ing one's judgments until one possesses the necessary facts, and the 
duty of reporting observations accurately. 

7. MATHEMATICS. 

What has been said of natural sciences as a means of strengthen- 
ing the conception of law applies with similar force to mathematics.* 
So likewise of the contribution of mathematics to human welfare, 

1 See p. 18, on the need of bringing ideals into consciousness. 



30 MOEAL VALUES IN SECO:t^DAIlY EDUCATION". 

and especially of the biographic elements in mathematical history. 
Pupils are often led to take a new interest in the subject when they 
realize that their textbook represents the cumulative contributions 
of lofty natures from India, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, a,nd other lands. 
The teacher who cares for his subject will want his pupils to know 
something about Thales, Plato, Euclid, Archimedes, and the founder 
of the Pythagorean fellowship. He will try to have them under- 
stand why in ancient and modern times mathematical studies have 
appealed so profoundly to intellects now counted among the world's 
greatest. 

8. AET. 

The art studies prepare at the least for the worthy use of leisure. 
The significance of such use of leisure should be shown. Art studies 
also provide occasion to satisfy distinct cravings of the adolescent 
nature which, unless thej'^ find a healthy expression in esthetic 
creation and enjoyment, are likely instead to find debasing outlet. 
If there is any age above others which requires to be fed upon beauty, 
it is youth, with its disturbing new wealth of emotions. No recrea- 
tion can be more wholesome at this period than the making of beauti- 
ful objects. 

The relations between beauty and right living are close. Note how 
frequently terms of the moral vocabulary are taken from the field 
of esthetics e. g., " fair," " ugly," " fine," " course," " beautiful." 
The thing of beauty testifies to the fact that there are values in life 
which can not be measured in terms of material standards. More- 
over every beautiful object suggests perfect relationships. Inspired 
by this conception the work of art represents painstalang selection 
and arrangement of precisely those sounds or colors or words which 
contribute to the perfect whole. Without tedious moralizing, teachers 
of the art studies have abundant opportunity to put forward these 
analogies between beauty and noble living. 

Group activities in music and in dramatization offer opportunities 
for teamwork by which pupils can effectively learn to cooperate for 
worthy ends. 

9. VOCATIONAI- GtTIDANCE AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION. 

In all communities, and perhaps especially in agricultural com- 
munities, vocational guidance should do much to combat false notions 
of the greater merit in the so-called gentlemanly callings. Too many 
young people are stiU influenced by the belief that there is something 
superior in bookkeeping or clerkship, because these vocations permit 
clean Jiands and white linen. The school is the place to lift into 
special prominence the contributions made to human welfare by 



MOBAL VALUES IN" SECONDARY EDUCATION. 31 

those occupations which some of our surviving aristocratic standards 
still brand as inferior. 

Vocational training affords the pupils compelling motives for 
entering upon their daily studies in the right spirit and for exer- 
cising such qualities as accuracy, promptness, a sense of respon- 
sibility, self-control. Teamwork in the shop, for instance, should 
contribute much to their ability to get on with their fellows. As 
stated in an earlier section, the ideals back of these experiences should 
be brought into the clearest consciousness, e. g., not only should 
pupils be offered the chance to practice self-control and personal 
responsibility ; they should be given all possible help to comprehend 
what these qualities signify for life, both within the vocation and 
outside. 

Youth is especially apt to blunder through eagerness to do things 
quickly. Hence the importance of careful training for one's life 
work should be stressed. All members of the teaching staff should 
cooperate to lead the pupils to realize the value of continuing at 
school as long as possible, pointing out the demand for the educated 
person of to-day as contrasted with the " self-made " man of former 
times. 

As the pupils advance in the high school the ethical implications 
of the vocation should be broadened and deepened. As in other sub- 
jects, how far these ideas can be grasped by the younger pupils will 
depend upon teachers and pupils. The point of view to be stressed 
is twofold : First, that employers as well as employed are in the last 
analysis servants of society,^ and second, but equally important, that 
work when rightly conducted is a way of improving the personality 
of all concerned, that making a living should help not hinder the 
making of lives. The main ethical consideration about any calling 
is the effect for better or for worse which it exercises: (1) Upon 
the personality of the man who enters it, e. g., does it broaden his 
mind or cramp it? * (2) Upon his fellow workers, e. g., what should 
"setting the pace for one's competitors" mean? (3) Upon the peo- 
ple who do the purchasing, e. g., compare educating the public taste 
with debauching it; and (4) upon the other callings with which his 
own is interrelated, e. g., the stimulus given to modern scientific 
labors by industrial progress, or the interchange between business 
and art in such fields as furniture making and advertising. 

1 The war has awakened our country to the realization that farming and mining are 
distinctly national services. One way in which to make permanent the moral gains of 
to-day is to teach the young people that It is eminently patriotic to fit oneself for the 
best performance of one's life work 

2 Compare the deadening effect of ditch digging or of routine " efficiency " in a special- 
ized process in the factory with the opportunity offered to the employer or superintendent 
to use his mind vigorously. Pupils are keenly interested ia the point that brains are de- 
veloped by overcoming obstacles. 



32 MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION". 

The ideal re"^^ards of work should be given full honor in shaping 
the choice of a vocation. These consist of the opportunity to benefit 
mankind by the nature and quality of the commodities or the services 
offered and, equally important, the opportunity to develop intelli- 
gence and other attributes of personality through useful service. In 
a survey of the vocations, consideration should be given to the special 
temptations in each calling and to the endeavors that have been or 
should be made to improve the code of its ethics. The teacher should 
be especially on the alert for every instance in which a vocational 
group is trying to raise its standards ; for example, the recent efforts 
of the Associated Advertising Clubs to banish advertisements of 
fraudulent medicines. Through biographies of leading figures in the 
various callings, pupils should studj^ the effect that the work exerted 
upon the personality of the man. Public and school libraries may 
offer considerable assistance by collating material in magazines, 
books, and obituarj?^ accounts of leaders in the several vocations. 
Much stress should be laid upon the qualities, particularly the moral 
qualities, essential to true success, and ways by which these may be 
cultivated. 

In short, the high school is untrue to its obligations if its treatment 
of the vocation accentuates what a worker is to get from his calling in 
material advancement or fame, and minimizes what society is entitled 
to expect of him, and what he makes of himself by meeting this ob- 
ligation. The opportunities which any of us enjoys to do his life- 
work would never be ours if we were not the beneficiaries of a rich 
social heritage. It should be counted a privilege therefore to em- 
ploy that heritage in only the worthiest ways. Impractical as this 
point of view may perhaps seem to some, it is well to remember that 
if it is not brought home in the early years when the temptations to 
ignore it are less insistent than they will be later, the likelihood of 
its acceptance in the years that follow will be so much less. 

This whole subject opens up magnificent vistas. Treated sincerely, 
it touches vital problems of civic, economic, and general social reform. 
How far these can be handled in the time available, this report does 
not undertake to say. It desires to stress the fact that every possible 
occasion should be utilized to make the interest in the vocation con- 
tribute to a more enlightened citizenship. 

In a course of lectures delivered in the Sheffield School at Yale 
University,' the head of a large engineering concern told the young 
men that after the labor troubles in Lawrence, Mass., of five or six 
years ago, a number of m.anufacturers in another part of the country 
cooperated to send a man to Lawrence in order to report to them 

1 Gantt : " Industrial Leadership," Yale University Press. 



MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUCATIOJT. 33 

•what lessons they might learn. The man came back with the rather 
disconcerting item in his rejoort, that while the men in the offices at 
Lawrence knew how to buy and make and sell, they knew less about 
their own labor problems than the labor leaders who had conducted 
the strike. The latter knew, for example, how the increase in the 
cost of living affected the quantity of milk and eggs that the worker 
was able to buy for his children. They knew its effect on the mind 
which the weaver brought to his loom every morning. These men, 
uncultured in other respects, had learned this fact of history, that in 
spite of all the bad things alleged about the labor union, it had to 
its credit the record of preventing the creation of a permanently ser- 
vile class. The men at the bottom knew at least this one item about 
the civilization — the factory civilization — in which we happen to be 
living. The men in the offices did not know it. They were cultured 
gentlemen ; but their culture did not tell them these things about the 
essentially industrial society in which they were captains. 

In this connection it should be noted how little our schools do 
to educate industrial foremen and superintendents who appreciate 
the human side of their w^ork and labor leaders of a high type. 
Are we preparing young people to be industrial leaders of the fair- 
minded, forward-looking sort required by our changing social order? 

So important are these needs that some educators would prescribe 
a certain amount of industrial work for all pupils. Nothing so 
helps one to evaluate the work put into a day's job by a mechanic 
as first-hand experience in similar work. To be sure, the perform- 
ance of such tasks under the relatively pleasant conditions of school 
years is a different thing from work in a factory under the lash of 
necessity. Nevertheless, the importance and the difficulty of the 
problem should spur us to make every beginning that we possibly 
can. 

10. PHYSICAL EDUCATION. 

While some gifted persons may possess strong wills in spite of weak 
bodies, for most people physical and moral vigor are connected inti- 
mately. Samuel Johnson's remark that the sick man is a scoundrel is 
borne out by innumerable instances where irritability, gross indolence, 
exaggerated fears and other indications of weak will may be traced to 
bad health. Other things being equal, boys and girls will bring to 
their tasks minds more alert, spirits more cheerful, and wills more 
energetic if their bodies are sound. Particularly in adolescence, 
many are apt to entertain morbid fears which better health can do 
much to banish. The same may be said of other nervous disorders 
that need most of all a proper physical regimen. 



S4 MORAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUCATION. 

The means at our disposal are hygienic surroundings, instruction 
in hygiene, the inspiration afforded by ideals of self-control, gym- 
nastics (including calisthenics and folk dancing), and athletics. 

The moral values in athletics are abundant. Even a single reason 
like the contribution to clean recreation would justify the impor- 
tance attached to this activity. Warning must be sounded against 
excessive eagerness to score a reputation for victories. The ethical 
aim is to cultivate the spirit of teamwork, and especially of honor- 
able rivalry'', with all that this implies of fair play, courtesy, and 
generosity both in victory and in defeat. 

In gymnastics much can be done to instill habits of instant, volun- 
tary control and discipline in obedience to orders. Without the 
corrective supplied by free cooperation in sports, gymnastics on a 
large scale might perhaps simply inculcate habits of automatic 
obedience which are hardly consistent with the ideals of democracy. 
The value of the combination lies in the fact that both types of 
teamwork are needed, each in its special place. There are occa- 
sions — e. g., on an alarm of fire — ^in which it is essential that whole 
groups respond implicitly and instantly to sharp commands from 
those in authority. There are other occasions — e. g., a civic reform — 
where the freer type of teamwork is required. In both cases what 
is needed is not only the practice but that conscious, intelligent 
grasping of the ideal to which reference has been made in these 
pages many times. 

For the timid natures both gymnastics and athletics afford ex- 
cellent means of developing self-confidence. Boys and girls are often 
helped in this regard not simply because of improved health, but 
because of the self -trust inspired by the consciousness of having over- 
come difficulties once feared. 

The matter of sex hygiene had better be treated as one item in a 
program of self-control. Care must be exercised against giving it 
too large a place in the students' thoughts.^ Ideally the persons to 
do the teaching are the fathers and mothers ; and the school through 
its parents' associations should do all it can to help them meet this 
responsibility. In view, however, of the fact that many parents are 
quite incompetent in this regard, the school can scarcely fulfill its 
obligations to the parents of the future if it leaves them without the 
benefit of skilled guidance.^ It is well to remember that the appeal 
to fear as a guarantee of clean living is at best an unreliable motive 
and not infrequently an actual mischief. Far more effective are those 

iSee p. 28. 

• For a helpful discussion of tills problem see " The Social Emergency : Studies in Sex- 
Hygiene and Morals," edited by William T. Foster (Houghton Mifflin Co.). See also 
Bigelow's " Sex Education " (Macmillan). 



MORAL VALUES IN" SECONDARY EDUCATION. 3^5 

positive ideals and practices of chivalry, self-respect, and self-control 
which it is the business not of one department alone but of all worlv- 
ing together to create and reinforce. 

VI. THE TEACHING STAFF. 

The work of the school depends for its best outcome upon the 
spirit, the ideals, the points of view, that the teachers bring to 
their daily tasks. It is not enough that they be men and women 
of a high degree of personal excellence. The teachers of to-day 
and to-morrow must also be animated by the social point of viev/. 
It is recommended, therefore, that to broaden and deepen their 
outlook teachers supplement their work in the classrooms by ex- 
perience in community work, civic and social betterment as repre- 
sented by settlements, civic leagues, and other agencies for social 
progress. In small communities the teacher can not only contribute 
directly to the civic life of his community by what and how he 
teaches; he can also become a more effective teacher by making 
the school the social center for his community. 

An ideal for his calling is suggested by Dr. Felix Adler in the 
statement that the ethical value of any life work is the opportunity 
which it affords to get into right relations with one's fellow beings — • 
his inferiors, or those less developed than himself, his equals, and 
his superiors. 

Eight relationship toward young persons requires an unfailing 
reverence for the worth yet undeveloped in them, but capable of 
infinitely varied and noble expression. The teacher is tempted to 
take a wrong attitude toward his pupils by the fact that he is 
obliged to pass judgment upon them for obvious ability or failure 
to reach a given standard. It is true that he must, indeed, hold 
them to the performance of certain definite achievements; but he 
should remember that this is only secondary to his main obligation. 
His chief concern should be with that which can never be fully 
embodied in outward accomplishment, that inner potential excel- 
lence which even the best external achievement can but faintly 
suggest. It is not his main task to have certain ground covered 
in English or science or mathematics, or to see that the school 
life is managed smoothly. These are only instruments; his busi- 
ness is to see that they are used as such to further the growth of 
his pupils' souls. 

In no calling is there greater need for right relationships among 
the equals, that is, among the fellow teachers. The teaching staff 
constitutes a community in which multitudes of problems in right 
adjustment arise. As in other communities, the members are apt at 



36 MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDAEY EDUCATION-. 

times to meet those problems unbecomingly, to shirk their burdens, 
or to accept in not the best of grace the necessary give and take. 
The school is fortunate in which ideals of willing, generous coopera- 
tion are put in practice by the teachers themselves.^ 

There is perhaps no better evidence of the respect in which a 
teacher holds his calling than in his attitude toward the novice in 
his profession. Many a young recruit loses his early enthusiasm as 
a result of the light, indifferent, possibly cynical way in which 
veteran associates have come to regard their vocation. The better 
sort of teacher will make a special point of seeking out the new- 
comer and helping him to a high conception of the value of their 
common calling. 

The principal enjoys a rare opportunity to bring about right rela- 
tions in the teaching community. He must have in mind a more 
democratic model for his staff' than the pattern set by an army or 
factory. He should regard himself not as a chief drillmaster issuing 
orders to a corps of subordinate drillmasters, but as the leader of a 
group of fellow teachers, each of whom should be permitted to share 
to the full extent of his inclination and power in the responsibility 
for the whole school community. Teachers are less likely to be 
indifferent toward the management of the school when it is their 
votes that decide school policies. 

Lastly, the teacher needs to get into quickening contact with the 
superiors in his calling, the masters living and departed, who gave 
their best to elevate the world's educational ideals. It is to be re- 
gretted that the teaching of the history of education is often so 
lifeless that few teachers care to go back in later years for freshened 
communion with the great host of leaders from Socrates and Plato 
and Aristotle on through our own generation. Some such contact 
is a constant need. Life is kindled only by other life. The teachers 
who mean most to their pupils will be those who look upon them- 
selves as heirs to a noble spiritual tradition pledged like their pre- 
decessors to enrich it still further. 



We have touched upon the leading resources available for further- 
ing the paramount aim of American education. On a topic as broad 
as this, much more will suggest itself to every teacher who regards 

1 A teacher in a city high school set his pupils an example which is certain to out- 
weigh the value of any of the facts he was able to teach them in his special subject. He 
was highly popular with the boys, and on the departure of the principal he was placed 
in temporary charge. The lads all expected, as he did himself, that he would be ap- 
pointed permanently. Another man, however, was chosen, and the boys were inclined to 
manifest their resentment by " passive resistance " of one kind and another. But they 
were dissuaded by the memorable example of their teacher. Gi-aduates still speak feelingly 
of the lesson in loyalty he taught them by the hearty support he gave the new principal 
at every turn. 



MOEAL VALUES IN SECONDARY EDUCATION. 37 

character not as a mere by-product, but as the object of central im- 
portance. Every possible resource should be cultivated. The demo- 
cratic ideal is high in the demands which it exacts for its special 
type of worthy living. The leading mission of our school is to make 
the utmost of all that will promote such living, and in that jprocess 
to assist in purifying and elevating the ideal itself. 



REPORTS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE REORGANIZA- 
TION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 



The following reports of the commission have been issued as bulletins of the 
United States Bureau of Education and may be procured from the Superin- 
tendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C, at the 
prices stated. Remittance should be made in coin or money order. Other 
reports of the commission are in preparation. 

1913, No. 41, The Reorganization of Secondary Education. Contains prelimi- 
nary statements by the chairmen of committees. 10 cents. 

1915, No. 23. The Teaching of Community Civics. 10 cents. 

1916, No. 28. The Social Studies in Secondary Education. 10 cents. 

1917, No. 2. Reorganization of English in Secondary Schools. 20 cents. 
1917, No. 49. Music in Secondary Schools. 5 cents. 

1917, No. 50. Physical Education in Secondary Schools. 5 cents. 
1917, No. 51. Moral Values in Secondary Education. 



38 



O 



BULLETIN OF THE BUEEATT OF EDUCATION. 

(Continued from page 2 of cover.] 
1917. 

No. 33. A comparison of the salaries Of rural and urban superintendents of 

schools. A, C. Monahan and C. H. Dye. 
No. 34. Institutions in the United States giving instruction in agriculture. 

A. O. Monahan and 0. H. Dye. 
No. 35. The township and community high-school movement in Illinois. H. A. 

Hollister. 
No. 36. Demand for vocational education in the countries at war. Anna T. 

Smith. " . , 

No. 37. The conference on training for foreign service. Glen L. Swiggett. 
No. 38. Vocational teachers for secondary schools. C. D, Jarvis. 
No. 39. Teaching English to aliens. Win throp Talbot. 

No. 40. Monthly record of current educational publications, September, 1917. 
No. 41. Library books for high schools. Martha Wilson. 
No. 42. Monthly record of current educational publications, October, 1917. 
No. 43. Educational directory, 1917-18. 
No. 44. Educational conditions in Arizona. 
No. 45. Summer sessions in city schools. W. S. DefEenbaugh. 
No, 46. The public school system of San Francisco, Cal. 
No. 47. The preparation and preservation of vegetables. Henrietta W. Calvin 

*- and Carrie A. Ly ford. 
No. 48, Monthly record of current educational publications, November, 1917. 
No. 49. Music in secondary schools, A report of the Commission on Secondary 

Education. Will Earhart and Osbourne McConathy. 
No. 50. Physical education in secondary schools. A report of the Oommissioh 

on Secondary Education, 
No, 51. Moral values in secondary education, A report of the Commission on 

Secondary Education. Henry Neumann, 
No, 52. Monthly record of current educational publications, December, 1917. 
No. 53. The conifers of the northern Rockies. J. E. Kirkwood. 
No. 54. Training in courtesy. Margaret S. McNaught. 
No. 55. Statistics of State universities and State colleges, 1917, 

1918. 

No. 1, Monthly record of current educational publications, January, 1918. 
No. 2. The publications of the United States Government. W, I. Swanton. 
No. 3. Agricultural instruction in the high schools of six eastern States. G. H. 

Lane. 
No. 4. Monthly record of current educational publications, February, 1918. 
No. 5. Work of the Bureau of Education for the natives of Alaska, 191&-17, 

Wm. Hamilton. 
No. 6. The curriculum of the woman's college. Mabel L. Robinson. 
No. 7. The bureau of extension of the University' of North Carolina. Louia 

R. Wilson and Lester A. Williams, 
No, 8, Monthly record of current educational publications, March, 1918, 
No. 9. Union list of mathematical periodicals. David E. Smith. 
No. 10. Public school classes for crippled children. Edith R. Solenberger. 
No. 11. A community center— what it is and how to organize it. H«nry E. 

Jackson. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 467 979 







